ABSTRACT
The aftermath of the Crimean War left France, Britain and Russia reluctant to pursue potentially destabilising policies in central Europe. The Crimean War had created financial problems but the main result was the defeat of Russia and the temporary end of its expansionist aims in the Balkans. However, already the crises of 1848-1849 and the Crimean War had severely weakened public finances, leading to an unstable fluctuation between expansive and contractionary monetary policy, high levels of public debt and a stop go military policy. During the Crimean War Prussia refused to go beyond an alliance with Austria based on strict neutrality. Since 1856 it had quietly allied itself with Russia rather than Austria on matters where there was conflict. Russian influence since defeat in the Crimean War was not nearly as great as it had been before 1848 or in the counter-revolutionary period from 1849 to 1854.
